Modern storage media includes, not only media that store data in a physically sequential manner, such as traditional magnetic and optical storage media, but also media that store data in a physically random manner, such as solid-state based storage media. Such physically random media allow any one block of data to be accessed as efficiently as any other block of data. These, and other, physical differences between the various storage media commonly available today result in storage media that differ in capability, attributes and performance. For example, magnetic and optical media require a reading and writing apparatus that physically moves from the physical location of the device head to the physical location of a block. Consequently, the speed with which such storage media can read or write data is dependent upon the proximity of the locations of the data on the media, since the device head must physically transition from one location to the other. Conversely, solid-state based storage media can read and write data through electrical signals without requiring any physically moving parts. As a result, the data stored on such media can be written, or read, with efficiency that is not dependent upon the particular location of the data on, for example, rotating media.
Of particular concern can be the power efficiency of the various types of storage media and, more specifically, of the overall storage devices in which such media are housed. For example, as the power consumption of processing units and display units decreases due to designed power efficiencies, storage devices can consume a disproportionate amount of power, especially within the context of power-sensitive computing devices, such as portable computing devices that draw power from batteries or other un-tethered sources of power. Reductions in the power consumed to store and access data can enable portable computing devices to further decrease in weight and size by decreasing the amount of power required to be produced from the batteries and, thereby, enabling smaller and lighter batteries or other un-tethered sources of power. Similarly, as another example, the utilization of multiple storage devices to store and access data, such as a storage array that is presented as a single logical storage unit, or such as a storage cluster that can provide storage to multiple independent entities, can result in the consumption of a large quantity of power. In particular, not only do the storage devices themselves consume power, but at least some of that consumed power is released by the storage devices as excess heat that can be removed only though the consumption of additional power by one or more cooling systems.